Transcript No Slide Title

Dreams: The Contemporary
Theory
Ernest Hartmann, M.D.
Professor of Psychiatry
Tufts University School of Medicine
Director, Sleep Disorders Center
Newton Wellesley Hospital
I was walking along a beach somewhere.
It wasn’t exactly like any of the beaches I
know, I think my friend Jan was with me.
Suddenly, a huge wave reared up out of the
ocean and totally engulfed us. I’m not sure
what happened after that. I struggled and
struggled to get to the surface. There was no
one else with me. I’m not sure whether I
made it, and I awoke, terrified.
Fear, Terror
A huge tidal wave is coming at me.
A house is burning and no one can get out.
A gang of evil men, Nazis maybe, are chasing me.
Helplessness, Vulnerability
I dreamt about children, dolls — dolls and babies all
drowning.
He skinned me and threw me in a heap with my
sisters; I could feel the pain, I could feel everything.
There was a small hurt animal lying in the road.
Guilt
A shell heads for us (just the way it really did) and
blows up, but I can’t tell whether it’s me or my
buddy Jack who is blown up.
I let my children play by themselves and they get run
over by a car.
I leave my children in a house somewhere and then I
can’t find them.
Grief
A mountain has split. A large round hill or mountain
has split in two pieces, and there are arrangements I
have to make to take care of it.
A huge tree has fallen down.
I’m in this huge barren empty space. There are ashes
strewn all about.
Scoring for the CI (Central Image)
SCORING DREAMS FOR CONTEXTUALIZING IMAGES
Definition: A contextualizing image is a striking, arresting, or compelling image — not simply a story —
but an image which stands out by virtue of being especially powerful, vivid, bizarre, or detailed.
EMOTION LIST
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
fear, terror
helplessness, vulnerability, being trapped, being immobilized
anxiety, vigilance
guilt
grief, loss, sadness, abandonment, disappointment
despair, hopelessness (giving up)
anger, frustration
disturbing — cognitive dissonance, disorientation, weirdness
shame, inadequacy
disgust, repulsion
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
power, mastery supremacy
awe, wonder, mystery
happiness, joy, excitement
hope
peace, restfulness
longing
relief, safety
love (relationship)
If there is a second contextualizing image in a dream, score on a separate line.
Dream
ID#
1. CI?
(Y/N)
2. What is it?
3. Intensity
(rate 1-3) 4. What emotion?
5. Second emotion?
I was walking along a beach somewhere.
It wasn’t exactly like any of the beaches I
know, I think my friend Jan was with me.
Suddenly, a huge wave reared up out of the
ocean and totally engulfed us. I’m not sure
what happened after that. I struggled and
struggled to get to the surface. There was no
one else with me. I’m not sure whether I
made it, and I awoke, terrified.
Contextualizing Image (CI) Score
1.6
1.4
1.2
CI Score
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
Most Recent
Dream
Dream that
Stands Out
Most Recent
Daydream
Daydream that
Stands Out
Contextualizing Image (CI) Scores
Mean ± S.E.M.
0.8
0.7
0.6
CI Score
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
Waking
Sleep Onset
NREM
REM
CI Intensity
2.50
CI Intensity Score
2.00
1.50
1.00
Mean of Student Group
0.50
0.00
0
1
2
3
4
5
Cases
6
7
8
9
10
CI Scores in the Trauma Group (N=10) Versus Matched
Student Control Group (N=30)
(Mean ± S.E.M.)
1.6
1.4
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
Trauma Group
Student Control
Group
CI Scores in Students
Reporting Abuse or No
Abuse
1.12 ± 1.2
1.2
1
0.8
0.65 ± 1.0
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
Abuse
* t = 2.63, p = 0.01
No Abuse
9/11 STUDY
Methods: Participants
• Complete data sets obtained from 44
persons, living in the US who have recorded
their dreams every morning for years.
• 33 women, 11 men. Mean age about 50.
Methods
• Each participant provided 20 dreams —
the last ten recorded before 9/11 and the
first ten after 9/11, without any selection or
alteration.
Methods: Scoring
• All dreams were scored on a blind basis for
CI intensity, emotion pictured by the CI,
dreamlikeness, and vividness.
• Dreams were also scored on three ad-hoc
scales of content: 1) attacks 2) buildings
like WTC or pentagon 3) airplanes, and on
a scale of nightmare-likeness
1.5
1.0
.5
0.0
-.5
-1.0
1
4
7
SUBJECT
10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 37 40 43
Results: After vs. Before 9/11
CI
Bef
Aft
Dif
1.10
1.28
.18
Length 12.93 11.88 -1.04
t
p
3.29 .001 one-tailed
1.3
NS
D-like
4.50
4.54
.04
.47
NS
Viv
4.22
4.24
.02
.17
NS
Results, continued
Bef
Aft
Dif
t
p
Bldgs.
.059
.104
.045
1.70
NS
Planes
.045
.061
-.016
.85
NS
Attacks
.034
.098
.064
2.74
<.01
NM-like
.213
.307
2.28
<.05
.094
Conclusions:
If we can generalize from these 44 dream
journalers, our dream imagery overall was more
intense after 9/11/01 than before.
Conclusions (continued):
However, dreams after 9/11/01 were not
significantly longer, more dreamlike or more
vivid. They did not contain more references to
buildings or airplanes. They did contain
slightly more references to attacks and they
were scored as slightly more nightmare-like.
Conclusions (continued)
• Consistent with previous studies the
intensity of the dream’s central image (CI)
appears to be a measure of emotional
arousal or emotional power.
•
Scoring of “Emotions pictured” showed a
shift towards more fear/terror and
helplessness/vulnerability after 9/11.
• However this was not as clear as the
change in “Central Image Instensity.”
The Contemporary Theory of
Dreaming
• 1. Dreaming is a form of mental functioning ( a
“neurocognitive state”). It is one end of a
continuum of mental functioning that runs from
focused waking thought, at one end, through
reverie and daydreaming, to dreaming at the other
end.
• ( Mental functioning involves varying patterns
of activation of the cerebral cortex.)
The Contemporary Theory of
Dreaming
• 2. Dreaming is hyperconnective. At the
dreaming end of the continuum,
connections are made more easily, more
broadly, and more loosely than in waking.
Dreaming avoids tightly structured,
overlearned processes such as reading,
writing, typing, calculating.
The Contemporary Theory of
Dreaming
• 3. The connections are not made randomly.
They are guided by the emotions, and
emotional concerns, of the dreamer.
• 4. The dream, and especially the Central
Image (CI) of the dream, pictures or
expresses the dreamer’s emotion. The
intensity of the imagery is a measure of the
power of the emotion.
The Contemporary Theory of
Dreaming
• 1. Dreaming is a form of mental functioning ( a
“neurocognitive state”). It is one end of a
continuum of mental functioning that runs from
focused waking thought, at one end, through
reverie and daydreaming, to dreaming at the other
end.
• ( Mental functioning involves varying patterns
of activation of the cerebral cortex.)
A Continuum of Mental Functioning
Focused
Waking
Thought
Looser
Waking
Thought,
Reverie
Daydreaming
Dreaming
Figure 1. A CONTINUUM
Focused
Waking thought
Looser,
Less-structured
Waking thought
Reverie
free association
daydreaming
Dreaming
What
dealt with?
perceptual input,
math symbols
signs, words
fewer words, signs,
more visual-spatial
imagery
almost pure
imagery
How?
logical relationship —
if A then B
less logic, more noting or
picturing of similarities,
more metaphor
Selfreflection:
highly self-reflective —
“I know I am sitting here
reading.”
less self-reflective,
more “caught up” in the
process, the imagery
in “typical
dreams”
total thereness,
no self reflection
Boundaries:
solid divisions,
categorizations,
thick boundaries
less rigid categorization,
thinner boundaries
merging
condensation
loosening of
categories,
thin boundaries
almost pure
picturemetaphor
A CONTINUUM
Focused
Waking thought
Looser,
Reverie
Less-structured free association
Waking thought daydreaming
C
Sequence of
ideas or
images:
A
B
C
D
A
B
C
A
D
Dreaming
B
B
A
D
C
D
Processing:
relatively serial; net functions chiefly
as a feed-forward net.
net functions more as an auto-associative net
Subsystems:
activity chiefly within structured
subsystems
activity less within, more across or outside of
structured subsystems
A Continuum of Mental Functioning
Directed waking activity
Math problem. Catch fly ball.
Focused
Waking
Thought
Looser
Waking
Thought,
Reverie
Daydreaming
Dreaming
A Continuum of Mental Functioning
Psychoanalysis: free association
Focused
Waking
Thought
Looser
Waking
Thought,
Reverie
Daydreaming
Dreaming
A Continuum of Mental Functioning
Inspiration. Discovery. New work of art.
Focused
Waking
Thought
Looser
Waking
Thought,
Reverie
Daydreaming
Dreaming
Creating a “dream” in the laboratory
• If a dream involves the picturing of
emotion (“contextualizing emotion”), could
one create a dream or something very
dream-like by allowing waking imagery
(daydream) to develop under the influence
of strong emotion?
Dreamlikeness Scale (Mean ±
S.E.M.)
5
4.8
4.6
4.4
4.2
4
3.8
Recent
Lab
Lab
Daydream Daydream Daydream
w/ Emotion
Recent
Dream
Bizarreness Scale (Mean ± S.E.M.)
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
Recent
Lab
Lab
Daydream Daydream Daydream
w/ Emotion
Recent
Dream
•
Dreams and Daydreams
• The daydreams of students with thin
boundaries are as “dreamlike” and as “bizarre”
as the dreams of students with thick
boundaries.
•
STUDIES NEEDED
Views of the Mind
Super Ego
thoughts
Ego
emotions
Id
memories
Linguistic
Processing
Modules
Semantic
Processing
Modules
Other
Modules
Boundaries in the Mind
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Between different sensory inputs
Between thought and feeling
Around thoughts and feelings ( “spread”)
Between sleep and waking
Between dreaming and waking
Between past, present, future
Around oneself ( body boundaries)
Boundaries, continued
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Ego boundaries
Interpersonal boundaries in family, etc.
Between male and female
Between old and young
Group boundaries – ethnic, race, nation..
Boundaries in organizing one’s life
B’s in philosophy– the true, the beautiful,
the good …
THICK
•
•
•
•
•
Keep things separate
Distinct categories
Absolutes. Definite.
Black-or-white
Solid member of one
group
• Persevering
• Reliable
THIN
•
•
•
•
•
Together
Merging
Flexible, “it depends”
Shades of grey
Many groups
• Imaginative
• Creative
A person with very thick Bs
• I am awake or I’m asleep. That’s it. No in-between
states.
• I don’t let my emotions interfere with my
thinking. They get in the way.
• I’m a man, you’re a woman. Vive la difference!
• The accused is guilty, or he’s innocent! A person
is sane, or insane! No in-betweens.
• A good relationship ( or organization) is one
where everything is clearly defined.
• My group is this way. Other groups are totally
different. Groups should remain separate.
A person with very thin boundaries
• Sometimes I’m not sure whether I’m awake, or
still asleep and dreaming.
• There’s no such thing as thought without emotion.
My emotions are always involved
• I’m a man, but there’s a lot of feminine in me too.
• We’re all a little bit crazy. There are no sharp
dividing lines.
• I’m a member of group A, but also sometimes
groups B and C. Groups should mix more.
Measuring Boundaries: the BQ
• The Boundary Questionnaire ( BQ) is a
138-item questionnaire, covering many
different categories of boundaries.
• The BQ has been taken by at least 10,000
people by now.
Boundaries and Dreams
• Overall there is a positive correlation
between Sumound ( thinness of Bs) and
dream recall frequency. Many studies.
• Overall people with thin Bs have longer,
more vivid, more “dream-like,” more
emotional, more bizarre dreams, and dreams
with more intense Central Images. (CI
score).
Boundaries and Dreams
• Sumbound ( thinness of Bs) is significantly
correlated with dream recall frequency, but the r’s
are modest ( r = .2 to .5).
• Correlation is more definite, r’s are higher, when
less “ noise.” Thus r = .58 in members of IASD (
N = 42).
• Or, when well-defined groups of Ss are compared,
rather than individual Ss.
Boundaries and Dreams
• Frequent dream recallers ( 7/wk) have much
thinner boundaries (in all 12 categories) than nonrecallers (+/- none).
• Dreams reported by people with thin Bs are
longer, more vivid, dreamlike, emotional than
those in people with thick Bs (Three studies)
• Dreams reported by people with thin Bs have
more powerful Central Images (Two studies).
Boundaries and Dreams
• People with thin boundaries have been
called “dreamers” as opposed to people
with thick boundaries (“thinkers”). Of
course this is only relative. Everyone thinks
and probably everyone dreams, but those
with thin Bs do – or at least remember -more dreaming and probably daydreaming,
and are more comfortable with those forms
of mental functioning.
A Continuum of Mental Functioning
Focused
Waking
Thought
Looser
Waking
Thought,
Reverie
Daydreaming
Dreaming
People with thick boundaries spend more time at the left end of the continuum
(focused waking). Those with thin boundaries spend more time in and are more
Comfortable with the right end (daydreaming and dreaming).
A Continuum of Mental Functioning
Focused
Waking
Thought
Looser
Waking
Thought,
Reverie
Daydreaming
Dreaming
Thick boundary functioning…………….Thin boundary functioning
Emotion and the Continuum
Focused
Waking
Thought
Looser
Waking
Thought,
Reverie
Daydreaming
•EMOTION
Dreaming
The Continuum at the Cerebral
Cortex
The focused-waking-activity-to-dreaming
continuum refers to patterns of activation in
the cortex.
1. Regions of Activation
Focused
thought
Looser
thought
Daydreaming
Dreaming
2. Spread of Activation Within a
Region
Focused
thought
Looser
thought
Daydreaming
Dreaming
3. Single Units as a Network
Focused
thought
Looser
thought
Daydreaming
Dreaming
The Contemporary Theory of
Dreaming
• 2. Dreaming is hyperconnective. At the
dreaming end of the continuum,
connections are made more easily, more
broadly, and more loosely than in waking.
Dreaming avoids tightly structured,
overlearned processes such as reading,
writing, typing, calculating.
We do not dream of “reading,
writing and arithmetic”
• Results from 250 good dream recallers
RESULTS:
Question A (Frequency of the “3 R’s” in dreams)
READING
48% of subjects said “never,” and an additional 36% said “hardly ever,”
although the group spent 150 ± 94 minutes per day reading.
WRITING
56% of S’s said “never” and an additional 36% said “hardly ever,”
although this group spent 106 ± 87 minutes per day writing.
TYPING
75% of S’s said “never” and an additional 19% said “hardly ever,”
although this group spent 98 ± 97 minutes per day typing.
CALCULATING
73% of S’s said “never” and an additional 22% said “hardly ever,”
although this group spent 23 ± 29 minutes per day calculating.
Relative Prominence Scores
for Six Activities: X ± S.E.M.
6
5
4
3
2
1
Walking
Writing
Talking
Reading
with Friends
Sexual
Activity
Typing
Questionnaire study in 250 frequent dreamers. The scale on the left runs
from 1: “The activity is far more prominent in my waking life; it hardly
occurs in my dreams,” to 7: “The activity is far more prominent in my
dreams; it hardly occurs in my waking life.”
The Contemporary Theory of
Dreaming
• 3. The connections are not made randomly.
They are guided by the emotions, and
emotional concerns, of the dreamer.
• 4. The dream, and especially the Central
Image (CI) of the dream, pictures or
expresses the dreamer’s emotion. The
intensity of the imagery is a measure of the
power of the emotion.
The Contemporary Theory of
Dreaming: Functions
• 5. The making of connections, making new
connections guided by emotion probably has an
adaptive function. It “weaves in” or integrates new
material. In other words new experiences,
especially if they are traumatic, stressful,
emotional, are integrated, interconnected into
existing memory stores ( in the cortex).
STUDIES NEEDED
•
And making new connections can be adaptive in
self-knowledge, discovery, creation.
Is Dreaming Psychotherapy?
• “Making connections in a safe place.”
The Contemporary Theory of
Dreaming (Functions)
• 6. In addition to this specific function of
dreaming, the entire focused waking-todreaming continuum has an adaptive
function. It is obviously useful and adaptive
for us to be able to think in a focused,
serial-processing manner at certain times,
and at other times to associate more
broadly, loosely, creatively –in other words
to daydream and dream.
MAJOR PROPOSITIONS ABOUT DREAMING
PROPOSITION
FREUD
(and often Jung)
1. Dreams are
Irrational or psychotic mental products
BIOLOGISTS
(Crick, Mitchison,
Gazzaniga, Hobson, etc.)
THIS VIEW
(Hartmann)
YES
YES
NO
YES
NO
NO
3. Dreams are “the
royal road” or at least
a good road to the
unconscious
YES
NO
YES
4. Dreams are
disguised — the
product of “censorship”
YES
NO
NO
2. Every dream is a
Fulfillment of a wish
MAJOR PROPOSITIONS ABOUT DREAMING
PROPOSITION
5. Dreams are
essentially a random
pattern of activity.
FREUD
(and often Jung)
BIOLOGISTS
(Crick, Mitchison,
Gazzaniga, Hobson, etc.)
THIS VIEW
(Hartmann)
NO
YES
NO
6. The dream (manifest NO
dream) is often important
without interpretation or
translation
NO
YES
7. Dreams are useful
(functional) even if
forgotten
NO
NO
YES
8. Dreaming is on a
NO
Continuum with waking,
Reverie, daydreaming
NO
YES
9. In dreams begin
responsibilities
NO
YES
NO
Collaborators, Co-workers
Clark, J.
Adelman, S.
Adinolfi, Sherry
Angel, Corrine
Baddour, A.
Banar, M.
Barrett, Deirdre
Basile, Robert
Beresen, L
Cohen, R
Bernstein, Jack
Bevis, Judith
Blitz, Robert
Brezler, Tyler
Brune, Patricia
Bulkeley, Kelly
Burr, A.
Carpenter, John
Cartright, Rosalind
Chapwick, M.
Cole, Jonathan
Cooper, Steven
Cravens, James
Cutler, J.
Dawani, Hannah
Ducey, Charles
Eddins, M.
Edelberg, R.
Elkin, Rachel
Falke, Roberta
Forgione, Albert
Garg, Mithlesh
Glaubman, Hananyah
Grant, William
Grace, Nancy
Greenwald, David
.
Harrison, Robert
Hauri, Peter
Hengst,William
Holevas, Adele
Houran, James
Hurwitz, Irwin
Keller-Teschke, M.
Kleman, Gerold\
Knudson, Roger
Kramer, Milton
Krippner, Stanley
Krueger, Charles
Kunzendorf, Robert
LaBrie, Richard
Latraverse, T.
Lindsley, Gila
MacFarlane, J.
Mattle, L.
McNamara, Patrick
Collaborators, Co-workers
Marsden, Herbert
Mehta, N.
Milosfsky, Eva
Mitchell, William
Moldofsky, Harvey
Moulton, H.
Murphy, M.
Myers, B.
Newsom, M.
Oldfield, Molly
Pavia, Holly
Rand, William
Regestein, Quentin
Rosen, Rachel
Russ, Diane
Shannon, R.
Sherry, Sally
Sivan, Ilana
Skoff, Barry
Latraverse, T.
Lindsley, Gila
MacFarlane, J.
Sivan, Ilana
Skoff, Barry
Spinweber, Cheryl
Stickgold, Robert
Teschke, M.
Thalbourne, M.
Thomas, L.
Treger, F.
Vaillant, George
Van der Kolk, Bessel
Ware, Catesby
Watson, Robert
Zborowski, Michael
Engine
Wheels
TRUCK
Metal
Gasoline
Highways
A Journey
CAR IN
MOTION
Motion
Beginnings, ends
Goal
Brakes
Start-stop
RELATIONSHIP
Speed
Obstacles
In control, out of control
Exhilaration, danger
Crash?
Dreams and poems
• Is the Objective Correlative of the poem the
same as the Central Image of the dream?
• “I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.”
• “Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the
sky,
Like a patient etherized upon a table.”
• And What rough beast, its hour come
round at last,
Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?
Coleridge
•
•
•
•
•
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
Ezra Pound:
• Melopoieia
• Phanopoieia
• Logopoieia
Shakespeare:
• The poet’s eye, in a fine frenzy
rolling……..
•
•
•
•
•
Such tricks has strong imagination,
That, if it would but apprehend some joy,
It comprehends some bringer of that joy:
Or in the night, imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush supposed a bear.
The Emotion-Imagery Bridge
Poet’s
Emotion
Poem’s
Image
Reader’s
(audience’s)
Emotion
Art ( from the Encyclopedia
Brittanica)
• “The creation of a work of art is the
bringing together of a new combinations of
elements in the medium (tones in music,
words in literature paints in painting , and
so on.). Creation is the re-combination of
pre-existing materials.”
• …. “guided by the artist’s emotion.”
“ I suggest that creation of a work of art
relies on the same basic mechanism we
have identified in dreaming – making new
connections guided by emotion.”